Business Day
*Mantashe slaps down Numsa on ‘takeover’* *Natasha Marrian, Business Day, Johannesburg, 28 February 2012*THE spat between the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and the African National Congress (ANC) took an ugly turn yesterday, with ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe describing the union’s meddling in ANC matters as "dangerous".
At the weekend, Numsa called for change in the ANC’s top leadership at the party’s conference in December, accusing it of not implementing resolutions taken at its last conference in Polokwane.
Relations between the ANC and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) are tense as the federation prepares for a national strike on Wednesday of next week against Gauteng’s highway tolls, and labour brokers.
Numsa called on union leaders to swell the ranks of the ANC, so they could influence its policy. Cosatu has close on 2-million members, while the ANC this year managed to bring its membership to 1-million for the first time.
The spat between the ANC and its labour ally comes ahead of elective conferences this year of the ruling party, Numsa, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Cosatu itself.
Cosatu played a key role in President Jacob Zuma’s ousting of former president Thabo Mbeki as ANC leader in 2007.
At the time, the union federation said its support for Mr Zuma was conditional on his administration delivering on the pro-poor resolutions adopted at the Polokwane conference.
Mr Mantashe hit back at Numsa yesterday during a briefing on the ANC’s national executive committee meeting under way outside Pretoria, saying that waiting in the wings to take over the ANC was a "tendency" which was "politically dangerous".
"I don’t want us to elevate a myth of takeover of the ANC into reality — it’s a myth. This dream that there will be now a flood to enter the ANC and change its character, it’s a myth."
Mr Mantashe cast doubts on whether Numsa had sufficient members in ANC branches to influence the party’s conference.
"There’s no delegation in the … conference of the ANC called Numsa delegation. They will be invited as part of a delegation of Cosatu, which is a delegation of observers," he said.
"As people begin to be bold about what should be changed … it’s an exaggeration of the role, of the interaction, of allies."
Mr Mantashe spelled out the ANC’s position on discussing leadership. He said ANC branches could discuss "anything and everything including leadership", but nominations for positions only opened in October.
Numsa’s deputy general secretary, Karl Cloete, yesterday declined to comment on Mr Mantashe’s warning, saying the union was attending Cosatu’s central executive committee meeting where "such matters are the subject of discussion".
At a Numsa gathering last week, President Jacob Zuma called on union members to participate in the ANC’s decision-making processes and to join the party’s top leadership structures.
The NUM took a softer approach to the ANC leadership at its national executive committee meeting last week.
Its general secretary Frans Baleni said the union’s top brass focused on policy. But he added that a correct approach on policy matters was key to leaders making it into the upper echelons of the ANC.
Mr Baleni urged the ANC to accept their criticism and pro-poor policy in a positive manner. He warned union members against assuming that they could become ANC leaders on a union platform, and urged them to get to work in structures of the party.
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